COMMENTARYThis cartoon contains a lot of grammar points, wordplay, phrasal verbs, and idioms. To get further information, just hover your mouse over the words highlighted in pale blue.

TRANSCRIPTHAMLET: Being overweight is holding my career back. If I were thinner, I could go up for romantic lead parts.BRUTUS: Aye, Hamlet, happen you could. But if you lost weight, think of all those character roles you’d miss out on.HAMLET: Tubby or not tubby, that is the question.BRUTUS: Actually, I’m in a bit of a pickle myself. My agent’s put me up for a job on the so-called 'English Riviera'.HAMLET: But Brutus, old chap, if you take a job on the English Riviera, you’ll be miles away, and out of the theatrical loop.BRUTUS: Torbay or not Torbay, that is the question.FRENCH COW: Excuse me, mes amis, but I couldn’t help but hear your conversation. For I too am on the horns of a, how you say, dilemma.HAMLET: We say ‘dilemma’.FRENCH COW: Aye, that’s right, dilemma. I want to act, but my family in France are putting pressure on me to return home to Seine et Marne and become involved in the local soft cheese industry.HAMLET: Bummer.FRENCH COW: To Brie or not to Brie, that is the question.BUZZ THE BEE: Bzzzzzzzzz. Hello Hamlet. Excuse me but I too …

Here's a tweet from BBC Learning English which raises an interesting grammar question. In fact, I don't agree with the assertion that 'I am loving living in London' is 'informal usage'. Surely it depends on the context. For example, if someone has just moved to London (from somewhere less exciting), I can quite imagine that they would say 'I'm loving living in London.', whereas 'I love living in London' would suggest that the speaker has lived there for some time. It just goes to show that where grammar rules are concerned, context is everything.

A few weeks ago Peter Muller sent me an email about a new app he co-created. I was very impressed when I tried it out, and said I would do a post about it on The English Blog, so here it finally is (better late than never!).

Towns & Cities is a 'hip-hop English language mobile app' for iPhone and Android. According to the press kit, 'Towns & Cities works as a supplemental language-learning tool for English learners, and uses original hip-hop music as its main channel for communication and engagement. The music comes from work in the classroom as a language assistant in Spain'. You can preview a few of the songs on the Towns & Cities Soundcloud account.

When I downloaded the app, it was free, which I thought was a bit strange given the amount of work which must have gone into it. It now costs £0.99, which is still incredibly cheap. I did a demo for my EM Normandie students using the videoprojector and they loved it.

March 17, 2015

BACKGROUNDPope Francis said in an interview published on Friday he believes his pontificate will be short and that he would be ready to resign like his predecessor rather than ruling for life. Full story >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Banx shows an elderly couple sitting in armchairs in their living room. The woman tells the man, "If you hadn't retired as Pope we might never have met."

EXPLANATIONLike many of Banx's cartoons, the humour is slightly surreal and derives from the dissonance between the banality of the characters (who are often the same husband and wife), and the bizarre things they say.

GRAMMARThe cartoon provides a good example of the third conditional, which is used to talk about things which did not happen in the past (he did retire as Pope). 'Might' is used rather than 'would' because it is not 100% percent certain that they wouldn't have met.

March 13, 2015

BACKGROUNDThis cartoon by Banx from the Financial Times relates to the news that selfie sticks, the extendable rods used by people to take photographs of themselves with mobile phones, have now been banned in the National Gallery on the grounds that they fall under the category of ‘tripods’, which are already prohibited. Read more >>

THE CARTOONA couple of tourists in an art gallery ask a man if he would mind taking a selfie of them. The joke is that, by definition, you cannot take a selfie of someone else!

VOCABULARYThe online Collins dictionary describes a selfie stick as 'an elongated stick to which you attach a camera or mobile phone to take a better photo'.

GRAMMARNote the construction "Would you mind (doing something)?", which is used to make polite requests. There is also a negative form: "Would you mind not smoking in here?"

DISCUSSIONDo you agree with the selfie stick ban?What things would you like to ban?

October 01, 2014

The latest edition of the Guinness World Records annual was published recently, and it's always a good source of material for a lesson on superlatives and measurements. I used four videos featuring new records from the Guinness World Records YouTube channel for a jigsaw viewing activity. You can see one of them below, and the other three are listed on this worksheet. I also did a transcript of the videos which you can find here.

An old-fashioned teacher holding a ruler, is giving a pupil the time-honoured back-to-school writing assignment: 'What I did this summer'. The boy, who is playing with his mobile phone, tells her, "If you followed me on Twitter, you'd know." See here for a very similar cartoon from 2013.

GRAMMARThe cartoon features a nice example of the second conditional, which is used to talk about ‘unreal’ or impossible things. Note that 'you'd' is a contraction of 'you would'.

• If I won a lot of money I’d buy a big house in the country.• Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world?• If you didn’t smoke so much you’d feel a lot better.

The structure is usually if + past simple and would + infinitive. It’s not important which clause comes first.

July 25, 2014

BACKGROUNDThe Commonwealth Games are taking place in Glasgow, running from Wednesday 23 July (which features the opening ceremony) through to Sunday 3 August. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Paul Thomas from the Daily Express shows UK Prime Minister David Cameron and some of his cabinet colleagues watching the high jump event at the Commonwealth Games live on TV. Cameron comments, "If Russia was in the Commonwealth, Putin would be for the high jump ..."

EXPLANATIONIf you say that someone is (in) for the high jump, you mean that they are going to be punished because they have done something bad or are responsible for something that failed. • She'll be for the high jump when her mother finds out she's been smoking. Cameron is, of course, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's supposed involvement in the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Eastern Ukraine last week.

GRAMMARNote the use of the second conditional to talk about an unreal possibility. See The English Club for more on this grammar point.

July 24, 2014

BACKGROUNDTartan-clad performers, spinning oversized Tunnock's tea cakes and a giant kilt were among the highlights at a feel-good Commonwealth Games 2014 opening ceremony on Wednesday night. The Queen officially opened the games before a 40,000-strong crowd in Glasgow's Celtic Park with millions more expected to watch on television. Thousands of athletes from 71 nations and territories took part. They entered the stadium after the live show, which had a cast of around 2,000. The Queen declared the Games open by reading her own message from inside the Commonwealth baton. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Paul Thomas from the Daily Express shows the Queen and Prince Philip at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The Queen, who is wearing a parachute, says, "The parachute? I'm hoping I might be jumping out of a plane again ..."

July 23, 2014

This parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" should appeal to grammar nerds! It is one of eight videos released by Weird Al Yankovic over the past week to mark the release of his new album, "Mandatory Fun." The videos did their job: the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts with more than 80,000 units sold.

COMMENTThe lyrics (see here) contain some useful grammar lessons, but it's worth noting that the use of the word 'spastic' in the line "That was sarcastic, ’cause you write like a spastic" would be totally inappropriate in British English, as in the UK it is considered an offensive way to refer to disabled people.

June 27, 2014

BACKGROUNDGoogle Glass has gone on sale in the UK for the first time, priced at £1,000. Google Glass consists of a tiny screen in front of the right eye that appears equivalent in size to a 25-inch desktop display, a battery, a frame, a touch-sensitive panel and a camera. Voice commands allow the user to perform various functions with commands such as: “OK Glass - take a picture”. Read more >>

THE CARTOONIn the cartoon by Banx, a wife complains to her husband: "You talk more to your Google Glass than you do to me". The humour, as often in Banx cartoons, comes from the incongruousness of the situation — the man is not the sort of person you would expect to see wearing Google Glass (and it is Glass not Glasses, by the way).

GRAMMARNote the use of the auxiliary verb 'do' to avoid the repetition of the main verb. See here for more on this grammar point.

June 22, 2014

THE CARTOONThis is the cover of the latest issue of Private Eye, published before England played its first World Cup match. The England players are shown disembarking from the plane (in Brazil, one assumes). The pilot asks, "Shall I keep the engines running?"

EXPLANATION"Shall I keep the engine running?" is a question typically asked by taxi drivers when their fare asks them to wait rather than drive off. It suggests that their client won't be long.

COMMENTHow could they possibly have known that England would be eliminated so quickly? Don't answer!

GRAMMARNote the use of "Shall I" to make an offer/suggestion. See here for more on this.

June 17, 2014

BACKGROUNDPeople in the UK should stop being "bashful" about being British, the prime minister has urged. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, David Cameron said the country should be "far more muscular" in promoting its values and institutions. He backed the promotion of "British values" in the classroom amid claims conservative Muslim governors had tried to influence some Birmingham schools. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Banx connects Cameron's comments to England's World Cup defeat against Italy. A man tells his wife, "The British value I'm most proud of is being a good loser." The joke is that Brits have had lots of practice at being good losers — especially when it comes to World Cup football!

GRAMMARYou could also say "The British value of which I'm most proud", but that sounds a little formal in this context.

June 06, 2014

BACKGROUNDExpanding waistlines are now a common sight - but they're not the only part of us that's getting bigger. The average British foot is now two sizes bigger than it was in 1970, new figures have revealed. In the past 40 years, the average male foot has risen from a size eight to a size 10, while the typical woman’s foot is now size six as opposed to four. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail shows an obese couple eating chips in the street. The woman sees the headline about people's feet getting bigger and comments, "That's worrying. I can't remember what mine looked like."

EXPLANATIONShe can't remember what her feet looked like because her enormous stomach is stopping her from seeing them. In fact, the cartoonist is drawing attention to the the fact that Britain is facing an obesity crisis.

GRAMMARNote the use of the possessive pronoun 'mine' to replace 'my feet'. For more on possessive pronouns, see here.

March 16, 2014

BACKGROUNDAfter spending hours picking their outfits with elaborate hats decorated with feather extravaganzas, the female race-goers at Cheltenham are keen not just to show off their fashion choices at the racecourse. The well-dressed Festival spectators have been taking to Twitter to share ‘chelfies’ of their day out at the races. The photographs, which are accompanied with the hashtag #chelfie - a combination of the words Cheltenham and selfie, the self-portrait internet craze - show the women posing with their glamorous headwear and dresses clearly on display.

THE CARTOONIn the cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail, a group of jockeys and their horses have stopped to take a 'selfie' just yards from the finishing line. A frustrated racegoer - who we assume had bet on the leading horse - comments, "'Oh no! Five more yards to go then he stops to take a selfie!'

VOCABULARYA yard is three feet, 36 inches, or 91.44 centimetres. There are 1760 yards in a mile.

GRAMMARNote the difference between the constructions 'to stop to do something' and 'to stop doing something'.• He stopped to take photos. (He was walking along the street and saw something he wanted to photograph so he stopped in order to take photos).• He stopped taking photos. (He was already taking photos but for some reason decided to stop doing so).